Give extreme timeframes. If someone needs something done, tell him or her it will be done in a week, and hand it to them 3 days later.

I got told about this one by a senior colleague (sp?), and it is the best lesson i ever learnt: People are pleased when you finish 'early' and not angry when (inevitably) your timeframe was over-ambitious and things take longer than you expect! Brilliant.

It also helps combat the extreme under-estimation of timeframes by non-programmers: "All you have to do is click a button! Why will this take so long!?" "Well, first i have to build the button..."

I got told about this one by a senior colleague (sp?), and it is the best lesson i ever learnt: People are pleased when you finish 'early' and not angry when (inevitably) your timeframe was over-ambitious and things take longer than you expect! Brilliant.

Around 25 years ago a project manager guru (books, seminars, the lot) gave me this advice: "multiply all your estimates by pi." Not only will things take, cost, and size, over three times what you thought, but the resulting numbers look far more impressive. "It'll take 3.142 weeks" looks like you took more time and effort over that calculation than "It'll take a week".